Where to Score the Best Shopping Deals of the Year

Happy Independence Day! I’ve scored some fantastic deals this week and I wanted to share where I’ve been getting them so you can score some for yourself! Enjoy and happy shopping!

First of all- not pictured above is all of the awesome stuff I’ve cashed in at The Body Shop. I did a ton of Christmas shopping there and in the last two weeks I’ve spend $100 and gotten more than $400 worth of gifts. I won’t share exactly what I purchased, because you never know who is reading! I’m so glad I will be entering the holiday season STRESS FREE, with more money in my pocket, and fantastic gifts that are much better than what I could have afforded to buy otherwise. If you’re wondering how it feels to have finished 90% of my Christmas shopping by the first week in July, it feels amazing.

Bath & Body Works is in their semi annual sale right now too, so I recently stocked up on enough hand soap to last me until their next semi annual sale. I was also able to get a few gifts there at super low prices, since most of their inventory is 50-75% off right now. They’ve really upped their ante in the past year or so, by reformulating many of their shower gels to contain shea, to make your skin softer, not to mention chic packaging and new scents. I’ve always been a fan, but recently they’ve been blowing me away with their awesomeness. Since I know my grandpa is not reading this, I can share with you that I bought him a Mahogany Teakwood candle for Christmas- it smells just like him…kind of like Irish Spring soap! I urge you to smell some of their candles in scents from around the world. They are divine!

The Gap has some phenomenal deals lately. If you can even fathom thinking of winter in the 90-100 degree weather we’ve been having, take yourself sweater shopping. I got a couple striped button down sweaters for $13 each the other day, each marked down from $45. Yes, I ended up spending $26 in the middle of June for sweaters, but I will be so glad to have a couple new sweaters when it gets chilly outside!

I can’t even step intoNordstrom Rack lately without leaving with $300 worth of stuff (for a much lower amount, of course!) I’ve gotten some sick deals, including a cartoony OMG sweater ($5 marked down from $98), a head scarf/head band ($1.80 marked down from $12), a butter LONDON trio of delicious smelling nail polish remover ($6 marked down from $29), a trendy bullet shaped necklace ($3 marked down from $14), a Zella workout tank ($7.80 marked down from $50), and the Urban Decay Ammo palette ($11.97 marked down from $38). So if you’re following me, I spent about $35 and went home with around $250 worth of stuff. I am constantly patrolling the makeup section at my Rack store, and have noticed they regularly have Smashbox, Anastasia, butter LONDON, and much more. They also have a regularly stocked NYX area. It’s a great place to buy name brand stuff for much, much less. I’m glad we have a personal spending budget or it would be very easy to go overboard there!

Our local Gymboree currently has everything in their entire store on sale for $12.99 and under. I could have seriously bought out the store! We have a lot of hand me downs for our daughter, or I probably would have felt like going nuts buying stuff for her. Baby clothes are so hard not to snatch up left and right because they’re adorable and it doesn’t feel like a personal splurge so there’s no guilt involved. Last Christmas, I had a three month old, and didn’t realize how expensive buying an outfit would be. We spent over $40 for a church outfit for her! Outrageous! I’ve wised up and decided to buy outfits a year in advance for special occasions while they’re cheap. The dress in the picture above is the cutest thing- brown with reindeers on it. I think it’ll be perfect for Thanksgiving next year, with a long sleeved onesie underneath and some tights. Best yet, it was $6 marked down from $30. I’ll be going back there this weekend to find a Christmas 2013 outfit!

Your local Craigslist or Buy/sell/trade Facebook page might be just the ticket for summer must-have items. If you’re not sure what I mean, type in “(your city) buy/sell/trade” on Facebook in the search engine, and see if something comes up. Last summer I bought like a crazy woman from a lot of those groups and found high ticket baby items for very low prices. I just bought a patio set (worth over $200 and in great shape) for $60. Since I set this post early, hopefully by the time you read this, I will have scrubbed the furniture down with a hose, and spray painted everything with Rustoleum before July 4th! It was a steal of a deal and I can’t wait to make them look perfect!

Happy Fourth, and if you have found any stellar deals you want to share, please let me know in the comments!